More Articles

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

By Louis SahagunLOS ANGELES TIMES • Sunday January 5, 2014 8:31 AM

SAN DIEGO — Elizabeth Lopez maneuvered a massive steel claw over the side of a 134-foot sailboat
and guided its descent through swaying kelp and schools of fish 10 miles off the coast of San
Diego. She was hoping to catch pieces of a mysterious marine ecosystem that scientists are calling
the plastisphere.

It starts with particles of degraded plastic no bigger than grains of salt. Bacteria take up
residence on those tiny pieces of trash. Then single-celled animals feed on the bacteria, and
larger predators feed on them.

“We’ve created a new man-made ecosystem of plastic debris,” said Lopez, a graduate student at
the University of San Diego, during the recent expedition.

The plastisphere was six decades in the making. It’s a product of the discarded plastic —
flip-flops, margarine tubs, toys, toothbrushes — that gets swept from urban sewer systems and river
channels into the sea.

When that debris washes into the ocean, it breaks down into bits that are colonized by
microscopic organisms that scientists are just beginning to understand. Researchers suspect that
some of the denizens may be pathogens hitching long-distance rides on floating junk.

Scientists also fear that creatures in the plastisphere break down chunks of polyethylene and
polypropylene so completely that dangerous chemicals percolate into the environment.

“This is an issue of great concern,” said Tracy Mincer, a marine geochemist at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “Microbes may be greatly accelerating the weathering of
plastic debris into finer bits. If so, we aren’t sure how zooplankton and other small creatures are
responding to that, or whether harmful additives, pigments, plasticizers, flame retardants and
other toxic compounds are leaching into the water.”

About 245 million tons of plastic is produced annually around the world, according to industry
estimates. That represents 70 pounds of plastic annually for each of the 7.1 billion people on the
planet, scientists say.

The waste gathers in vast oval-shaped ocean “garbage patches” formed by converging currents and
winds. Once trapped in these cyclonic dead zones, plastic particles may persist for centuries.

The physiological effects of visible plastic debris on the fish, birds, turtles and marine
mammals that ingest it are well-documented: clogged intestines, suffocation, loss of vital
nutrients, starvation.

The effects of the minuscule pieces that make up the plastisphere are only beginning to be
understood.